It was the latest finish ever at the US Open, played in a city that supposedly never sleeps, but Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner made it well worth the late night stay.
In one of the best (and longest) matches ever contested at this Grand Slam in New York, 19-year-old Spanish prodigy Alcaraz won a match point in the fourth set to defeat Sinner, 21-year-old former Italian prodigy, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3, to advance to the semi-finals.
“I always say you have to believe in yourself all the time, and hope is the last thing you lose,” Alcaraz said in an on-field interview early Thursday morning. “I just believe in myself and believe in my game.”
Instant coffee was definitely not needed to end this quarterfinal of the instant classic, which lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes and ended at 2:50 a.m., 24 minutes later than the previous record shared by three matches.
The suspense and tension is that constant; the quality of the footage and the effort is transcendent.
Alcaraz, the third seed, and Sinner, the 11th seed, have long been seen as the future of tennis, but they look much more like the present after the match kicked off on Wednesday night, setting a pace. Speed from the bottom line and chase each other’s shots and be the winner.
But only Alcaraz, an acrobatic pace player from Murcia, has the chance to make his big break at this unusually open tournament. He will face Frances Tiafoe of the United States on Friday in the first Grand Slam semi-final for both. In the other semi-final, Casper Ruud of Norway will face Karen Khachanov of Russia.
None of those four men have won major singles titles: no disappointment and no surprise in a long era already dominated by the Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
But neither Federer nor Djokovic played this year in New York, and Nadal, lacking matches and even a bit of inspiration after a taxing season, was disappointed in the fourth round by Tiafoe, a 24-player. glitzy age, the first American Man since Andy Roddick in 2006 to go this far at his hometown Grand Slam event.
Tiafoe is sure to have the majority of support in Arthur Ashe Stadium, with a capacity of nearly 28,000. He will also have the advantage of getting some extra rest.
His three-set match against Andrey Rublev was played out during daytime trading, which allowed Tiafoe to settle into the evening at his hotel as Alcaraz and Sinner pushed each other deep into the night’s history.
The second longest match ever played at the US Open, just behind the 1992 semi-final between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang, beating Edberg in 5 hours and 26 minutes.
But Alcaraz looked somewhat pessimistic as he patted his chest and thanked the several thousand fans who stayed until the end, signing autographs before heading back down the tunnel with the digital clock on the pitch only about 3 hours. shining.
